25 Astonishingly Dumb 21st Century Film Oscar Wins
15. 2007: Happy Feet Wins Best Animated Feature
Beat: Cars and Monster House.
Should've Won: Monster House.
The Best Animated Feature category is usually filled with injustice, since voters just give the gong to whatever Disney or Pixar made that year instead of what actually deserves it, but most of these wins aren't that bad.
Sure, films like Frozen, Inside Out, Soul and the latest winner Encanto weren't necessarily the best animated films of that year but since they are still very good, it's not super-jarring that they won. That being said, there are some cases where a mediocre film nabbed the award - and it hurt.
Case in point: Happy Feet. One of the only non-Disney films to win this award, Happy Feet is a solid and visually stunning but ultimately forgettable and messy animated flick somehow walked away with the Oscar despite being up against the brilliant (and disgustingly underrated) Monster House, a hilarious, surprisingly frightening and endlessly entertaining family adventure that leaves Happy Feet in the dust.
Honestly, Happy Feet wasn't necessarily deserving of even a nomination, let alone the win. Yes, 2006 was a fairly weak year for animation but Flushed Away, Over the Hedge, Paprika and A Scanner Darkly would've been far more deserving inclusions nonetheless.